For but a moment, Tracy Abrams daydreamed about the crowd going wild.

He imagined himself playing inside a dead silent Assembly Hall during Friday’s Illini basketball season opener, draining the 10th point of the game and watching the crowd break into frenzy.

“That’d be sweet,” Abrams said, as he let himself break from his usually regimented attitude to let out a smile.

When the Illini open their regular season schedule and finally usher in the John Groce era against Colgate on Friday, the crowd will be silent.

The Illini student section “Orange Krush” will lead a tribute to the first-year head coach’s alma mater by instating an “Orange Hush,” much like the “Silent Night” tradition that’s orchestrated at Taylor University every year. Once the ball is tipped off, all fans will be asked to hold their cheers until Illinois reaches 10 points, and then after the goal is met, let hell loose.

“I’m honored,” Groce said. “I’m flattered and honored that they would basically honor Taylor University and welcome me and my family that way. It’ll be interesting. How you can get 18- to 22-year-olds to be quiet until the 10th point, that’s pretty amazing, but I’m very appreciative that they made the decision to do that.”

Before the 10th point is scored and even before the opening tip-off, Groce has to come up with a starting lineup, a task he’s been holding off until the last moment. As of mid-Wednesday, Groce said he still had a few different lineups in mind, and he’s looking for a combination that has specifically played well as group.

For the Illini’s two exhibition games, Groce started the players that graded out the highest in practice. But even those lineups were held off from public or team knowledge, as senior forward Sam McLaurin said he didn’t know he was starting Sunday’s exhibition against West Chester until Groce wrote the lineup on the whiteboard minutes before the game. Groce said he’d likely need to judge Wednesday and Thursday’s practices before any decisions are made.

“I’ve always said freshmen want to play, sophomores want to start, juniors want to score and seniors want to win,” Groce said. “You hope that’s not true all the time, and some of the younger guys can figure that out a little bit earlier. … To players, certainly to 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds, it means something to them. It’d be foolish to say otherwise, but I think it’s a little overrated.”

Defense is not overrated, and it’s an area the Illini need to improve on, especially in transition. In fact, Groce said that based off film from Sunday’s exhibition game, the Illini’s offense is a little ahead of their defensive preparation, and most of the time that shouldn’t be the case.

Part of the reason why Groce hasn’t set a lineup yet is because results change everyday. McLaurin said the Illini are still firmly in the learning stage of the new system, and while Abrams said the team was getting close to a full comfort level, the Illini simply aren’t there yet. Groce has been getting his team prepared under a system much like the one he implemented at Ohio, which features a more up-tempo pace that fits the Illini’s athleticism.

“We’ll know (if we have it down) as the games start rolling,” McLaurin said. “As fans, you’ll see us progressing as the year goes on. You may see spurts of it early or it may take a while, but we’re all patient with the process and we understand that it is a process.”

That process starts on Friday, when the Red Raiders’ jump-shooting attack comes to Champaign, and the Illini try to hush their preseason critics.

Ethan can be reached at [email protected] and @asofthesky.